OP here; yes, definitely! However as a tiny company, we don't have any of the same incentives to make it work like Google does. But it still manages to work because we enjoy the freedom/low-stress environment and want to maintain that, so that means doing enough good work to keep the business alive. Being so small also means that whatever we do has a huge impact on the company, both positive and negative. So while the lack of deadlines reduces stress, there's still the reward of feeling like your work means something at the end of the day.
This is similar to my own journey from software engineer to manager and back "down" to engineer again, with similar results.
I'm much happier as an individual contributor than I was as a manager.
Awesome! Glad it has worked out for you. I still feel like I might go back into management someday, but it will need to be an ideal situation.